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Stuart Wells Jackson collection

 Collection
Call Number: MS 957

Scope and Contents

The Stuart Wells Jackson Collection consists of correspondence and other papers pertaining to Abraham Lincoln which were collected by Stuart W. Jackson. These include facsimiles of Lincoln correspondence, a deed signed by William Lincoln (1820 Feb 22), memorabilia, correspondence and writings about Lincoln, the 1861 diary of Joseph J. Williams, and other related items. These materials are arranged alphabetically by author and are listed in detail on the following page. There is, in addition, some personal correspondence of Stuart W. Jackson concerning his collection and research on Lincoln; these letters are also arranged alphabetically. While most of these letters were enclosed with writings which were sent to Jackson, and are generally routine, several are substantive. The letter from George P. Hambrecht (1924 May 6) encloses two short essays by Hambrecht, and the letter from Samuel B. Harding (1911 Oct 13) encloses typed copies of two Lincoln letters.

Finally, the collection contains several miscellaneous items, including membership certificates from three Lincoln societies and a photograph of Walt Whitman in 1890.

These papers were donated to Yale University by Stuart W. Jackson in the 1940s.

Dates

  • 1771-1949

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright status for collection materials is unknown, though much of the material in this collection is likely in the public domain. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Stuart W. Jackson in the 1940s.

Extent

0.75 Linear Feet (2 boxes, 1 folio)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0957

Abstract

The major part of these papers consists of a collection of facsimilies of letters, documents, and memorabilia by and about Abraham Lincoln collected by Stuart Wells Jackson (1875-1957). Several items are original, among them holograph poems on Lincoln by William Cullen Bryant and Edwin Markham. There is also a small amount of Jackson's personal correspondence from 1902-1949.

Biographical / Historical

Stuart Jackson has been president of Stuart W. Jackson, Inc., his insurance firm, since it was founded in 1915. He is president of Institut Français de Washington, the scope and purpose of which is to promote the study of French civilization, history, literature, and art in the United States. He is also president of the American Friends of Lafayette, whose principal object is to promote historical research dealing with the life and times of General Lafayette and French participation in the American Revolution. They publish and distribute such material. He is a trustee of the Yale Library Associates. He has contributed articles on Lafayette to several periodicals, and he compiled a Lafayette Bibliography with a preface by Whitlock and published in 1930 in a limited edition by William E. Rudge. He edited the May, 1934, Gazettepublished by Yale University Library—it was the Lafayette number, and the article was chiefly annotation of the Lafayette letters and documents in the library by or about J. Fenimore Cooper. In 1954 France gave him the decoration of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

He writes to an inquisitive Class secretary—i"It is very sweet of you to ask me to write a letter about myself during Prohibition and since. I'm really discouraged, however, that you do not seem to know what business I'm in after all these years, especially as you have intrusted to me some of your insurance needs for a long while. Really, Julien, I'm the best insurance broker in New York. The trouble is that not enough people seem to know it; otherwise, I could retire and play golf with you often. That's the only business anecdote I can send you now.

"You know damn well that I have not been blessed with children, and yet you beg me for their full names with their school and college careers. You then rub it in by inquiring about the health of my grandchildren.

"In closing I would like to say that you are my favorite Class secretary and even if you are a little personal at times I send my warm regards to you and '98. Avec bommage, S.W.J."

On November 4, 1905, he married Elizabeth Underwood Cox.

Stuart Wells Jackson died on November 21, 1957.

From Forty Years After: Class of 1898.

Title
Guide to the Stuart Wells Jackson Collection
Status
Under Revision
Author
compiled by Janet Elaine Gertz
Date
October 1982
Description rules
Finding Aid Created In Accordance With Manuscripts And Archives Processing Manual
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository

Contact:
Yale University Library
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven CT 06520-8240 US
(203) 432-1735
(203) 432-7441 (Fax)

Location

Sterling Memorial Library
Room 147
120 High Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Opening Hours